NAMM Releases Music USA 2004; Expands to Include International Stats

NAMM, the International Music Products Association, today released Music USA 2004: International Edition, the association’s annual statistical review of the music products industry. For the first time, the publication has expanded to include five regions from around the globe: Australia, Canada, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom.

According to the new Music USA, domestic industry sales in 2003 held at $6.967 billion, a marginal decrease from last year’s revenue total of $6.973 billion. While this number falls short of 2000’s record of $7.1 billion, it marked the third-best year in the music products industry’s history. A closer look at the units and dollar figures reveals that retailers moved more product in 2003 than at any other time, but the revenue generated remained virtually the same. This is thought to be the result of lower-priced products from Asia and withering competition.

However, given the turmoil that marked 2003, industry analysts are feeling optimistic that U.S. sales fared as well as they did. Store traffic suffered during the first half of the year due to repercussions of the war on terrorism, but business rebounded in the fourth quarter and ended on a high note. This also illustrates that making music continues to be an extremely popular American pastime. According to a 2003 Gallup Poll commissioned by NAMM, 54 percent of American households have at least one person who plays a musical instrument, an increase from 50 percent recorded in the 2000 Gallup Poll.

NAMM’s goal of expanding its statistical coverage internationally could not have been possible without the cooperation of the Japan Music Trades; the Japan Musical Instrument Association; the Music Industries Association Canada; the Australia Music Association; the Music Industries Association U.K.; CoMusica in Spain; and ANIMAP of Portugal. The Music Trades, Music Merchandise Review and the U.S. Census Bureau were instrumental in providing U.S. statistics and analyses.

“Our industry has become increasingly international, and so we wanted to expand Music USA internationally as well to create a useful tool for understanding the current global business environment,” said Joe Lamond, CEO and president, NAMM. “In the future, we hope to include more nations and broaden our scope even further.”